A display panel such as a plasma display panel and a liquid crystal display panel used for a display of an electronic device is assembled by joining a driver board to the edge of a glass panel as a display screen through a connector such as a TCP (Tape Carrier Package). The panel assembling device performing this assembly process is equipped with a panel conveying mechanism that conveys a glass panel delivered from an upstream device, to the application device to feed the panel. As a conveying mechanism for conveying a panel such as a display panel, a method is known that holds the bottom surface of the panel by means of an arm-like holder to move the panel, such as in Japanese Patent No. 3239685. In this patent literature, a panel is held by means of a cantilever-shaped holding arm and moved along carrier rails for the panel to be moved in a straight line.
In recent years, with upsizing of display panels, the size and weight of a panel to be conveyed have been increased. With such increase in size and weight of a panel, a method that holds a panel by means of a cantilever-shaped holding arm as in the above-mentioned example causes the holding arm to be deformed downward due to the weight of the panel, making a stable conveyance difficult. Consequently, a panel conveying mechanism has been demanded capable of stably conveying a large panel.